


Drown the Lovers

by LittleDarlingXOX



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Cheating, Dark, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dream Sex, Dubious Consent, Emotional Infidelity, Fairies, Hellhounds, Implied Isabelle Lightwood/Meliorn - Freeform, Infidelity, M/M, Original Character(s), Original Mythology, Pandemonium Club (Shadowhunter Chronicles), Parabatai, Past Isabelle Lightwood/Meliorn - Freeform, Post-Season/Series 02, Seelie Court, Urban Fantasy, What-If, faeries made Alec do it, fairy curse, fey magic, magic induced hallucinations, this fic completely ignores Jonathan and Valentine's interactions with the fey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-10 02:10:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10426851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDarlingXOX/pseuds/LittleDarlingXOX
Summary: The Seelie Queen is out for blood and Meliorn isn't the only one being punished for his dealings with Shadowhunters. Alec's loyalty to the Clave has earned him the unwanted attention of the Seelie Court. Now labeled as a valuable prize by the Seelie Queen, Alec must fight against ancient magic to stay in the mortal world with those he loves. But with an entire court looking to drag him into the fairy world to stay there forever, and a dangerous fairy knight playing selfish games, it doesn't look like it's going to be easy.





	1. Chapter 1

Alec crouched down and examined the body of the mundane laid out on the pavement. He lifted the edge of the man’s jacket and grimaced at the demon ichor that oozed from the fatal wound to his chest.

He tried to breath through his mouth as the rotting smell hit him. “The heart’s missing. Looks like the demon ripped it clean from of his chest.”

“You’re actually enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Alec glanced up at Jace where he leaned against the bricks of the alley wall, twirling a dagger by its hilt between two of his fingers.

“Jace, we’re standing over the dead body of a mundane who smells like he was dragged through the sewers. Why in the world would I be enjoying this right now?”

Jace shrugged. “Because the murder of a mundane by a demon is dangerous enough to warrant having the head of the institute back in the field. C’mon, you know you miss going on hunts together.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “A man is dead, Jace. Please, just _try_ to show a little decency.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Alec glared at him. “Are you just going to stand there annoying me or are you going to help me?”

Jace threw up his arms. “I _did_ help you! I was the one that killed the demon and called you out here in the first place.”

“Yeah, well now you’re going to be the one that gets the gurney so we can bring him back to the institute.”  

Alec waved him out towards the mouth of the alleyway where the remnants of a chain link fence once stood. “Go.”

Jace huffed and shoved off the wall. “Being head of the institute is making you pissy, Alec. I pity Magnus.”

Alec glared at him, but his parabatai had already turned his back on him and was walking away.

Alec pushed himself onto his feet. A dog yowled a few blocks away. The sound sent a shiver down his spine as he peeled the medical gloves off of his hands and tossed them into the dumpster next to him.

“Alec!”

“ _What?_ You literally weren’t even gone for a minute. What could possibly—”

Alec turned to see Jace sprinting across the street towards him. Alec’s hand went to the seraph blade at his hip, ready to draw it at the first sign of danger.

The howling started up again, but it was more than just one dog this time. It gave Alec a horrible feeling in his gut.

“Alec, it’s the wild hunt!”

Alec caught him as Jace practically barreled into him. Jace tried to pull him along but Alec planted his feet and grasped Jace by the shoulders. “Do be ridiculous, the wild hunt only goes after mundanes. By law they have no right to attack shadowhunters—”

A low growl emanated from behind them. Alec turned to see a black spectral dog treading slowly towards them. It’s eyes glowed yellow as it entered the gloom of the alleyway where they stood.

Alec took a step back and placed his hand back on the seraph blade at his hip. “Is that—”

“A bloodthirsty hellhound staring directly at us?” Jace’s hand tightened on his arm until Alec could feel his nails through his shirt. “Yeah.”

The hellhound crouched low to the ground with it’s teeth bared and hackles raised.

“That’s… not possible. Hellhounds don’t attack nephilim.”

“Not unless they’re order to.” Jace’s murmured.

Alec met Jace’s eyes nervously. They both knew what the hellhounds preceded and two shadowhunters were no match for a pack of faeries, especially not faeries as skilled in battle as those of the Wild Hunt.

Another growl joined the first as a new hellhound stepped out from behind its brother.       

“Run!” Jace dragged him away from the dead mundane and further into the darkness of the alleyway. They pounded the pavement, dodging fallen trash cans and dashing around corners.

The alleyway opened up into a courtyard, walls thickly covered with ivy and graffiti alike.

Without sparing a moment, Jace scaled the cement wall on their left. Alec fisted his hands in the thick tangle of ivy and scrambled over the other side after him. He landed harshly on a corroded metal patio table that clattered to the pavement as Alec rolled off of it, landing with his boots on the ground.

Jace was in the process of pulling Alec up onto the ledge of the second wall when they realized the sounds of pursuit weren’t slowing. Alec panting, risked a look back over his shoulder just in time to see the hounds run straight _through_ the wall across the courtyard, passing through it like it was nothing more than thin air.

“It just had to be _spectral_ hounds!”

The hounds baying filled the air long and low. Somehow it made the coldness of the night feel even more dark and isolating. 

They jumped from the ledge.

Jace and Alec came out onto a stretch of chinese restaurants and specialty shops, shuttered tight for the night. A flash of yellow to their left told Alec all he needed to know. “This way!”

They lurched to the right. Mundanes parted unconsciously before them as they raced up the sidewalk. Alec’s lungs burned with exertion and he could feel the endurance rune on his chest burning fiercely.

“Left!” shouted Jace. “They’re trying to flank us.”

A taxi swerved and blared its horn as they lurched across the crowded road and into the nearest alleyway.

At the end of the alley a fire escape sat with its ladder pulled down. Alec knew without asking that they were both thinking the same thing. Higher ground would be the only thing that stopped them from becoming hellhound jerky. They’d just have to risk finding out how high hellhounds could jump.

“You ready?” Jace’s eyes were nailed to the bottom rung of the ladder as they drew closer. “On three… one—”

He almost missed it with his eyes flickering eagerly towards their escape route. Alec grabbed Jace by the back of his shirt so suddenly that the skidding stop he’d originally intended turned into a full out slide across the pavement. Jace cried out at the raw pain in his bleeding forearms. Alec was feeling it too, they’d definitely scraped away a layer of skin on that pavement.

“ _Ah_ — Why the _hell_ would you— ” Jace rolled onto his hands and knees. His attempt to stand was stopped with  the sharp kiss of  a blade at his neck.

“Faeries.” grunted Alec as he eyed the one standing before him, blade in hand. “That’s why.”

Alec’s fingers stretched discretely for the dagger in his boot. Teeth snapped loud in Alec’s ear, but he didn’t dare risk turning his head to find out exactly how close. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the other hellhounds tightening rank in a half circle around him and Jace.  

All around them was the quick panting of hellhounds, irregularly punctuated by rumbling growls as one of the two shadowhunters so much as twitched in the wrong manner. With the breath of the hound standing over him stirring his hair and filling his nostrils with its foul stench Alec flattened his hand against the black top and abandoned the idea of arming himself all together.

The faerie knight in front of Alec smiled. Alec took in his angular face and studded leather armour. He couldn’t place his face but he didn’t bare the common floral embellishments of the Seelie court. “Wise decision, Alexander.”

Jace stood up fast, shoving aside the blade leveled at him. The other faerie flicked it back against his neck the moment he had his feet under him.

Jace spared him an irritated glance, but returned his attention to the faerie knight in front of Alec. “How do you know his name?”

“I’m sorry, is it some well kept secret?”

“It should be to a member of the Unseelie court.” said Jace. “Your people don’t associate with other members of the shadow world.”

“I’m not of the Unseelie Court, Jace Wayland. I wander where I please. Serving any court that requires my services.”

A solitary faerie. Like lone wolves, it wasn’t often that you saw one calling such blatant attention to themselves. Alec, knew however, that unlike lone wolves, any faerie that could survive outside of a court was ten times more dangerous than their regular kin.

“Then who are you?” asked Alec. “And what do you want from us?”

The faerie sheathed the dagger he was holding and crouched down until he was almost at Alec’s eye level. In a relaxed manner he tucked a stray section of his brown hair behind his ear.

Alec stared into his dark brown eyes and didn’t feel the least bit comforted when he smiled again. The hint of a nasty smirk laid behind his every expression. In him, Alec sensed the worst of faerie mischievousness.

“My name’s Cillian, and as for what I want from you… nothing yet. The Seelie Queen would have it otherwise, but for now I simply wanted to set eyes on you.”    

He braced his hands on his knees and pushed onto his feet.

“Call off your hounds, Gabe. We’re leaving.”

The other faerie whistled a quick sharp tone and the hounds darted around them. It was only when they were alone in the alley that Jace finally moved to help Alec to his feet. His offered hand didn’t release Alec after he had both feet on the ground, however.  

“Alec, what the hell was that all about?”

Alec looked off to where they faeries had gone. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling we’re going to find out sooner rather than later.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know: Cillian is pronounced like Kill-ee-an or Killian
> 
> Check out the pinterest page for this story to see more of the characters and their world!  
> https://www.pinterest.com/mbutera366/drown-the-lovers/


	2. Chapter 2

Alec shifted against the cold breeze that cut through the trees behind him. He pulled his eyes away from the reflective surface of the pond and looked around him for one last time. He didn’t expect there to be any mundanes out for a walk in central park this late at night unless they were looking to get attacked, or worse, found by a lone downworlder or demon. The park was a common hunting ground for all people of the Shadow World.

Alec pulled his jacket off and laid it down on the wet grass. He slid his seraph blade, bow, and quiver free of his person and bundled them in his jacket. The last to go was his phone. He fingered it quietly, wondering for the hundredth time if he should send a text to Magnus or his siblings… just in case.

As with the other times, he discarded the thought. If he told them what he was doing they would only come after him and ruin any chance he might have had. They were all more than a little nervous about what had transpired a day ago, but they had no more answers than Alec did.  Alec slipped the phone into the front pocket of his bundled jacket.

He turned back to assess the pond’s reflection. The moon was almost in position now. The gateway would be open in a few minutes.

Alec waded into the water, sinking his teeth deep into his lower lip at the icy chill of the murky water as it crawled up his legs. His breath fogged the air in front of him. It was stupid of him to try to enter the fey realm as the weather turned colder. He bit off a pained gasp as the icy water hit his torso. Pushing his boots against the muddy, sucking, bottom of the pond, Alec forced himself to swim forward and deeper towards the center of the pond. By the time Alec made it to where the moon’s image reflected on the water, his breathing was no more than shuddering gasps that frosted the air in front of him.

Alec pushed his numb limbs in circles, treading water to keep himself afloat as the weight of his wet clothes tried to pull him under the surface.

“C’mon,” Alec hissed. “ _C’mon._ ”

He breathed a sigh of relief when the water around him started to shimmer and glow with a silver light. The drop as the entrance opened under him came so suddenly that Alec was dragged under before he had a chance to hold his breath.

He choked on the dark water as an iron grip fastened onto him. It felt like two hands grasping his ankles, pulling him down, _down_ , to the pond floor and then even further.

Gravity returned all at once. Alec hit the packed earth shoulder first. He wheezed as crisp air filled his lungs again, twisting onto his side as he hacked up dirty pond water.

There was the sound of clinking metal above Alec, and a pair of leather boots came into Alec’s eyeline.

“Who wishes to enter the Seelie Court?” asked a voice above Alec’s head.

Alec wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and pushed his dripping hair away from his face. He sat back on his heels and addressed the Seelie knight that stood guard in front of him.

“Alexander Lightwood,” Alec replied, voice still a little raspy from swallowing pond water. “Head of the New York Institute.”

“Greetings, Alexander Lightwood. Are you here to request a meeting with the Seelie Queen?”

Remember to be polite, Alec thought to himself.

“No, I am not here on official Clave business to see her majesty. I’m here on a personal nature to speak with one of her servants, Meliorn.”

There was a glint in the knight’s eyes that put Alec on edge.

The knight nodded and waited for Alec to push himself to his feet before signalling him to follow after him. He led Alec down a path that ran through a forest canyon. Eventually the scenery around them changed from packed earthen walls to the open air pavilions, stone columns choked with ivy and bright flowering plants bracketing them on either side. The music and laughter grew louder as Alec was led further into the halls of Faerie. The knight pushed through a set of doors and before Alec knew it he was standing in a dance hall, full of fey dancing in circles. The pounding beat of the music, the sweet smell of spilled summer wine, and the glowing, dewy-eyed faces of the Seelie Court broke over Alec like a wave. He felt as if he’d been pulled underwater again, drowning in the exotic illusions of fey magic.

A beautiful woman twirled away from a dance circle and reached for him.

“Come dance with us!” she said with a laugh that was as light as champagne bubbles. Her hair fell in silver-white curls, framing her angular face and luminescent eyes.

Alec’s gut tugged with a deep foreign sensation. With a start, he realized what it was... desire. It told him all he needed to know to understand that he wasn’t thinking clearly.

He stepped back and away from the woman and fumbled for the stele in the back pocket of his jeans, slashing a hasty rune onto the inside of his arm. Alec’s senses came back to him all of once, the heady lull of the fey magic sliding off of him all at once. He stared into the bottomless black eyes of the woman before him, she smiled at him with pointed teeth. Desire turned to dread and yet still Alec preferred it.

The knight was waiting for Alec at the door on the other end of the hall. He smiled maliciously at Alec, clearly uncaring if his guest lost his way in the halls of the Seelie Court and never found his way out again.

Alec shouldered around the fey woman and made his way towards the other end of the hall.

Behind him the woman shrieked, “Stay with us, Shadowhunter! Stay with us forever!”

Now that his eyes were fully open, the sights and sounds of the fair folk caused a chill to race down his spine like someone had dropped ice cubes down the back of his shirt. It was almost a relief when Alec walked into Meliorn’s private rooms.

Almost.

The Seelie guard and the faeries before had been strangers, a test if anything. Meliorn knew him, knew facts about Alec’s family and friends. He knew what Alec’s weaknesses were. Now, was when Alec was in the most danger.

The sensation didn’t dissipate when Meliorn turned towards him and Alec caught sight of his face. The scars that marred his golden skin were still hard for Alec to look at, crawling like vines from his hairline to the edge of his jaw in gruesome tendrils. The tattoo on his cheek was faded to gray. Alec swallowed and stepped back hesitantly.

Meliorn arched a brow. “Does my face shock you, Shadowhunter? It was the gift given to me by my queen for helping your friend, Clarissa Fairchild.”

Alec had never gotten the chance to apologize for that. He didn’t think Meliorn would have wanted him to make a spectacle of such an events by bringing it up during his meetings at the institute with the other members of the downworld.

“I’m—”

“Do not say what I think you’re going to say, Shadowhunter!” Meliorn leveled a finger at him. “Do not insult me!”

Alec’s words stuttered and changed in a heartbeat. “We never meant to cause you trouble with your queen, Meliorn.”

“Nevermind that.” Though Meliorn’s face had never been angry, per se, Alec could sense the sudden shift in his emotions as his voice moved from a tight hiss back to his normal honeyed voice. It was the same voice that Magnus used late at night when he was tugging Alec to his bed by his belt loops.

He had a nagging suspicion that Meliorn might be trying to hit on him… the thought wasn’t exactly surprising to Alec. He understood that faeries didn’t think of love in the same way as Shadowhunters or Downworlders did. Gender and sexuality never seemed to matter. Love was a sport to them, and Alec didn’t put it past Meliorn to make a game of trying to get Alec into his bed. It would be amusing to the faerie knight at the very least.

“What have you come here for, Shadowhunter?” Meliorn asked.

“I’m in need of information about a faerie whose associated with your queen. He said his name was Cillian.”

“What kind of information do you seek?”

“I want to know what he wants and what he’s doing following me.”

Meliorn smiled, like all fey folk the idea of causing troubles in the mortal world amused and interested him. Alec wasn’t sure if he was on his side at the moment, but it was a risk he would have to take.

“Why should I give you information about one of my own? Let alone the _Fear Dorcha_.”

Alec nearly lost his breath. “The… The _Fear Dorcha_?”

“Ah, so you’ve heard the tales of mortals who come into contact with the Seelie Queen’s chief agent of abduction.” Meliorn made his way over to him, slipping past Alec to pull the gossamer curtains closed, lending them an air of thinly veiled privacy. Alec could sense him at his back when he returned. The fabric of Meliorn’s shirt brushed against his shoulder with every breath Alec took. “As for what he wants with you… What are you going to trade me for what I know?”

Alec didn’t dare turn around. He could feel the heat of the other man’s body through the wet clothes that hung off his form. The rune on his arm was still strong, but Alec didn’t trust himself not to be tempted this close to a Seelie knight like Meliorn. “I can trade you information for information if that is what you—”

“No, Alexander. That is not what I wish.” Meliorn’s inhuman grip fastened onto Alec’s arm and spun him around. Alec caught himself with a hand splayed against Meliorn’s chest. The loose tunic that Meliorn wore was cut into a deep v and half of Alec’s hand rested against Meliorn's warm, golden skin.

Meliorn caught Alec’s wrist as he tried to snatch his hand away.

“Do you want to know what I wish for, Alexander?”

Alec’s response was automatic. “No.”

He was standing close enough that Alec could detect the saccharine scent of summer wine on his breath. “Manners, Shadowhunter. There’s no need to be rude.”

Alec swallowed hard and forced himself to remain still as Meliorn traced the line of Alec’s jaw with his finger. “You’re a very beautiful boy, Alexander Lightwood. And you really are the full package, aren’t you?The oldest male child in your family, well-versed in combat and diplomacy, not to mention one of the shadowhunters that tried to bring me in for interrogation.”

“I was just following orders.”

Alec fixed his eyes below Meliorn’s chin, determined not to let Meliorn’s keen eyes see too much of what he was thinking. Alec watched the bob of the fey’s adam’s apple, it did not help clear his head.

“I would also be following orders if I brought you before the Seelie Queen. She would be very pleased at the sight of you. You’d make a fine member of our court.”

Alec wretched his arm free of his grip and backed away a few paces, needing the sense of safety that the distance gave him.  “You’d sacrifice me to your queen just to get back in her good graces?”

Meliorn smiled. “It would not be without your own personal gain. The transformation would only enhance your mortal beauty, and you would remain in our realm stripped of the morals that bound you as a human.”

Alec pressed a hand to his side where his parabatai rune was burned into his skin. Meliorn caught his movement. “That would also be lost. There are no equivalents to parabatai in the faerie realm, but members of our court take many lovers.”

It wasn’t even close to the same kind of connection that Alec shared with Jace but there was no way Meliorn could know that without having a parabatai himself.

“You swore your allegiance to Shadowhunters just like all the other Downworlders. You can’t force me to eat or drink anything without violating Clave law.”

“Who said anything about forcing you, Alexander. You’d simply remain down here until you chose to take part in our revelries.”

“I’m the head of the New York Institute. You can’t just _keep_ me here—”

Meliorn chuckled.

Alec knew too much about the trickery of the fey folk and he knew that if Meliorn was unwilling to escort him back to the mortal realm than Alec was unlikely to ever leave here. He could try to make a run for it, but he was just as likely to be pulled into a dancing circle or some other revelry until he didn’t care about escaping anymore. And if by some chance he didn’t say yes to the transformation while lost in the lull of fey magic, he wouldn’t last long before his body weakened and died of exhaustion. If Meliorn refused to guide him, he was as good as dead. 

He wanted to be relieved when Meliorn approached him slowly, hands spread wide at his sides in a gesture of peace, but he knew that any offer the Seelie knight made to him now would be a double-edged sword.

He wasn’t wrong.

“I would be willing to settle for a much less costly outcome… a trade of another sort, much like the one your sister and I made when she first came to see me in Faerie. We had an understood relationship, you see, information for—”

“Yes, I’m quite aware of your relationship with my sister.” Alec cut across him. He was trying very hard to keep the harsh edge out of his voice, and he didn’t quite succeed. “I seem to recall a lot of faerie dust on her dresses afterwards.”

Meliorn smiled at him from under his lashes. “There was faerie dust on far more than her dresses, if we are being honest with each other.”

Alec licked his dry lips. “Okay, then, honestly, you don’t interest me half as much as you think you do.”

“If it is a matter of looks, go out and pick a fey that appeals to you. I have no qualms with sharing you for a night.”

Alec’s face must have spoken volumes, for Meliorn broke out laughing.

“No?” he asked.

Alec shook his head.

In reality, Alec saw a little too much of Magnus in Meliorn’s face to feel anything but attraction to him… his lithe figure and amber skin, that easy laugh, a set of eyes that could see all of Alec at once. But Alec would never be able to feel at ease around Meliorn, always waiting to find the thorns hiding under the roses.

Meliorn smiled. “I’m feeling lenient, Alexander. Give me just one kiss and I’ll tell you all you need to know and send you on your way safely home.”

Alec pressed his lips together into a tight line but nodded all the same.

He crooked a finger at Meliorn. “Well, come closer.”

Meliorn closed the distance between them, his hand falling to Alec’s hip. This close the smell of summer wine filled Alec’s senses completely. Alec caught Meliorn by the neck, feeling the Seelie knight’s quickening pulse thump under his palm. He slid his hand up to trace Meliorn’s jaw up towards his ear, his fingers threading through Meliorn’s long dark hair. He pressed against the back of Meliorn’s head, drawing him in closer.

Meliorn’s tongue passed quickly over his lips as his eyes dropped to Alec’s own.

Alec leaned in.

He angled his head for the perfect angle… and pressed the briefest of kisses to Meliorn’s cheek.

He could hear Meliorn’s startled intake of breath and leaned in closer to his ear with a smile. “You didn’t _really_ think I was stupid enough to kiss a fey on the lips did you? Besides, I have a warlock who I’m very devoted to.”

He released Meliorn and took a few solid steps backwards.

Meliorn laughed and ran his thumb across his bottom lip.

“I have to give it to you, Alexander. You know how to play games of your own.”

Alec crossed his arms over his chest. “The information that I was promised? Please feel free to speak bluntly. I’d prefer to leave here as soon as possible.”

“My queen has plans to change your mind on that, Alexander Lightwood. As I’ve said before, you’d make a prized possession for the Seelie court. Head of the New York Institute, lover of the most powerful warlock in New York City, first born son of an ancient shadowhunter family. Having you in our court would solidify our alliances to the downworld and nephilim alike.”

Alec’s eyes narrowed. “Nephilim taken by the fair folk, no matter which court is responsible, are abandoned by their families. Centuries of history have proven that trying to bring them back only results in more losses. If you took me it would do nothing to solidify your alliance with the shadowhunters.”

“But I doubt it would be so easy for Magnus to leave you behind. And your siblings have already proven their readiness to work outside of the laws of the Shadow World when it comes to their friends and family.”

Alec sighed. “You still haven’t told me what this has to do with Cillian? If the Queen sent him to abduct me, why did he let me go free?”

“If I know anything about Cillian, Alexander, it’s that he likes to make things into a sport. If you ask me, abducting you would be too easy to be any fun. He’s been doing that for centuries. It would be much more interesting if he could make you come to him on your own accord.”

“Well that’s very fucking unlikely to happen.” Alec almost spat the words.

Except Alec was well aware of the powers of the fey. It wouldn’t be the first time that a shadowhunter was lured into forsaking their runes for the immortality of the Seelie court.

Meliorn's answering smile spoke volumes. He extended his hand. “Let me show you the way out.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm backkk!! Sorry for the long wait guys, but I hope this chapter makes up for it.

Alec pulled himself out of the lake, dripping water and shivering in the midnight cold as he retrieved his folded gear from it’s spot on the rocky shore by the water’s edge. He buckled his weapons belt on slowly, contemplating what his next step should be. When nothing came to him, he figured his best bet was to hit the archives at the Institute. With any luck, he would find enough information on this Cillian to figure out who he was dealing with. 

It was too early to label Cillian as his enemy, but if Alec could count on anything he knew about the fey, he would definitely be a disturbance.

Alec checked his phone as he made his way back to the Institute, scowling at the string of missed messages and the low battery notification that greeted him. Despite his best intentions, he’d been in Faerie for longer than he’d wanted to be. Three hours more to be exact. 

He’d have less time to devote to his research on Cillian’s history now, he thought with a grimace.

_ You should be happy you made it out at all, you idiot _ . 

The voice in his head sounded strangely more and more like Jace with every risky action Alec took on his quest for answers. He had a feeling, however, that if he told the real Jace what he had done, the only answer he would get was a punch in the face. Actually, Alec was positive that was what he would receive on delivering the news. Alec knew better than to enter the Seelie Court alone and Jace knew it too. 

Alec responded to Magnus’s voicemail with a text as he shouldered his way through the front doors of the Institute, giving Magnus the same excuse that he always did...another late night at the Institute. He found himself using it a lot as of late, and a part of him knew that it wasn’t doing anything to help their already uneasy relationship. Alec had just gotten Magnus to accept his apology and allow him back into his life, they needed to be transparent with each other now more than ever… but here Alec was again, withholding information.

Alec told himself that if something else came out of this situation he would tell Magnus. 

He took the elevator down to the Institute’s archives, a heavily-warded room located under the library. Though it was never that crowded, at three in the morning the archives room felt more like a mausoleum full of ancient relics than anything place a living person would willingly spend their time in. 

Alec moved to the long side table first. Years ago, some shadowhunter had the ingenious idea to transformed the unused space into a tea and coffee station for any shadowhunters pulling all-nighters. 

He poured himself a cup of coffee and then tipped what remained of the pot into the extended mug of a fellow shadowhunter who’d wandered over for a refill. She offered him a tired smile in way of thanks and they parted ways in silence, each heading off into their own private corner of the archives room. 

Searching for files on specific fey, even with files as extensive and routinely updated as the ones kept by shadowhunters, was a drawn-out process of narrowing down your information. Alec searched through the records of the Seelie Court first, but the Clave only updated their files after reports of fey incidents in the mortal world and there were many gaps in the timeline. For all Alec knew, Cillian’s name might not even _be_ _in_ the Clave’s reports. If he was half as good at his job as his title would have people believe, then mortals and shadowhunters alike would have disappeared from the mortal realm without a word. 

Still Alec continued digging, looking at any reports that involved unknown or solitary fey that came close to matching the appearance and undertakings of a fey in Cillian’s position. After an hour of searching like this, which had only gotten Alec to the year 1926 with nothing to show for it, he realized he should probably change tactics. 

He dialed Catarina Loss’s phone number and cringed at the welcoming he received when she picked up.

“I’m in the middle of my shift, whoever this is better have a hell of a good reason for calling!”

Alec cleared his throat. “Uh— yeah. This is Alexander Lightwood—” 

Her tone changed considerably. “Oh, Magnus’s boyfriend!”

“ — The head of the New York Shadowhunter Institute.” Alec finished pointedly, not keen on being known solely for his romantic relationships.

“Oh, well  _ excuse me _ . What is the head of the New York Institute calling about at four in the morning?”

“I need to know if you have any information about a solitary fey by the name of Cillian. You might know him as the Seelie Queen’s fear dorcha.”

“Don’t you have another warlock you could be asking these questions to? You know… one who’s  _ not _ currently working another job, has more knowledge on the subject of feys, and— oh, I don’t know— shares a bed with you every night. Ah yes, Magnus Bane. That’s who I’m thinking of. How forgetful of me!”

“I didn’t call Magnus. I called you.” 

“Yeah, well everybody makes mistakes and all that. Go talk to Magnus about this, I have a shift to get back. Some drunken idiot came in with a fork stuck in his arm and it’s fallen to me to pull it out, so if you don’t mind—”

At any other time, the foolishness of mundanes would have been highly amusing to Alec, but Alec didn’t have the time to enjoy that piece of information while it was being used to dismiss him and his current problem. Alec had been banking on using his official position to get the information he needed, but he should have known that any warlock that could stand beside Magnus Bane in both skill and friendship wouldn’t hold to formality. The only option Alec had now was to show his hand.

“Catarina, wait!” cried Alec. “I can’t talk to Magnus because he can’t know how I got this information!”

Alec was prepared for the barrage of questions that would follow a statement like that, but that was not the response he received. It was silent on the other end of the line for so long that Alec actually checked his phone to make sure Catarina hadn’t hung up on him. Finally, Catarina broke the silence with something akin to a growl. 

“I promised myself decades ago that I’d stop getting involved in Magnus’s relationship dramas, yet here I am again…. Alec, I won’t lie to Magnus. I don’t care who you are, my friendship with Magnus will always trump any sympathy I have for you.”

“I’m not asking you to lie to him.” said Alec. “I’m just looking for information. If you think this issue is more serious than I realize, than I won’t stop you from bringing Magnus into this.”

“It’s concerning the fear dorcha,” Catarina’s tone took on that of one burdened with years of unfortunate knowledge and constantly surrounded by dimwits, “of course it’s serious! Do you think the fear dorcha just makes social calls?”

“Let me rephrase that. You only tell Magnus if the situation is more than I can handle. More serious than a  _ shadowhunter _ would be able to handle.”

“Well, I sorry, Alec, but I don’t know you that well.”

“Exactly,” said Alec. “So don’t be so quick to cast judgement on my ability to handle this situation.”

Catarina laughed. 

“What?” snapped Alec, entirely done with people putting up hurdles for him to jump over before he even got to the main event. He’d been doing that since Jace passed off the position of head of the institute to him and he was tired of trying to prove his worth to everyone around him.

“Oh, nothing.” Catarina’s laughter tapered off. “Now I just understand Magnus’s frustration as of late. You’re a hard man to win an argument with, Alec Lightwood.”

She paused for a breath, long enough that Alec was starting to think she was waiting for him to say something. But what was he supposed to say to a statement which rested somewhere between a criticism and a compliment? 

Catarina saved me from embarrassing himself further. “It’s not like that fork is going anywhere soon. You have a pen on you?”

He gratefully picked one up from the tabletop where it had sat unmoving for the last hour or so and pulled the cap off with his teeth. 

“Ready when you are,” he replied around the obstacle in his teeth.

* * *

 

Alec blinked his eyes open and stared at the empty spot where his coffee cup had stood next to his elbow. He shifted, raising his head from his folded arms to glance over the edge of the table. Smashed ceramic was scattered about his feet. 

He groaned and rubbed at the sleep mark on his cheek. He didn’t remember falling asleep but the monitor had gone dark awhile ago and if he shifted just right he could see sunlight peeking through the far windows.

Alec slid out of his chair and crouched carefully over the ceramic shards, tossing the larger pieces into a nearby trash can. 

“Did you manage to dig up anything interesting on me?”

Alec flinched and cursed a moment later as blood welled up from his sliced finger. Alec dropped the bloody shard of ceramic into the trash can and turned to face his unwelcome visitor.

Cillian make a sympathetic noise when he caught sight of the trickle of blood that ran around Alec’s knuckle and down the back of his hand. “You should be more careful. You mortals are all so fragile.”

_ If I cut you, you’d bleed just the same. I bleed red and you bleed green, but you’re just as fragile as I am, _ Alec thought, but instead he asked, 

“How did you get in here?”

Cillian smiled. “What does it matter? I’m here now.”

It mattered to Alec. That answer did nothing to push the swirling questions from his mind, nor the concerns of an Institute head.

“There are angelic wards around the institute’s perimeter, runes against demonic entrance, and door codes needed to access the archives room,” Alec pressed him. “You  _ can’t _ be here. It’s not possible.”

“Trust me. There are ways in that even you don’t know about.”

Seeming to think that that topic of conversation was over and done with, or more likely because of his fey nature— remarkably similar to that of a vampire; bored, decadent, and ridiculously self-involved— Cillian decided to refocus the conversation on himself. 

He spun Alec’s notepad around so that he could read the information Alec had been given by Catarina and the records Alec had found in the archives database. “How unfortunate. Your records paint me as nothing more than a cold-hearted mercenary. ”

“You  _ are _ a mercenary,” replied Alec. “Moving from court to court, killing and kidnapping for whoever offers the best rewards. Am I missing something?” 

“Yes, actually. I did a bit of love making throughout my life as well. Not all of those pretty and pure shadowhunters needed to be taken. Some came to me willingly.”

His question was not so subtly hidden beside that revelation. Alec decided that a fey such as this needed to have things outrightly stated to him, just to make things crystal clear. 

“Well, I don’t intend to go  _ anywhere _ with you.” Alec wouldn’t want him getting it in his head that he actually had a chance of winning Alec over. 

Cillian smirked again and Alec was really holding back the urge to smack that smirk right off of his face. Instead he kept his eyes locked on him as Cillian stepped towards him. He and Cillian performed a sort of dance until Alec found his back catching up against the side of a bookshelf. 

“See…  you keep saying that— to me, to Meliorn, to the Seelie Queen—  but I still don’t believe you.” 

His words were so completely off that it actually had anger rising up in his gut. So much so that Alec didn’t know what to do with himself. His eyes dropped to where Cillian hand still clenched his notepad and Alec snatched it out of the fey’s hands, flinging it off onto a far off table. 

Why had he done that, he wonder afterwards, it was nothing that Cillian didn’t already know. 

“Are you going to leave on your own or am I going to have to show you the door?” 

He made sure not to show Cillian how uncomfortable their proximity to each other was making him. Alec had defeated hordes of demons and outmatched the inhuman strength of the forsaken, yet being backed up into a corner with a solitary fey unsettled him like he couldn’t begin to believe.  

Despite being of equal height with him, Cillian wasn’t looking him in the eye. Instead his eyes were focused low, somewhere in between Alec’s lips and his collarbone. Despite his nerves, Alec felt his own eyes wanting to do the same.

Cillian tilted his head to look at him from under his eyelashes. “I don’t think you want me to leave, Alexander.”

“In fact… ” Cillian planted his palm on the shelf next to Alec’s head and leaned in.  

A moment later, Alec was taking a shuddering gasp and breaking away from a deep kiss that he hadn’t even realized he’d taken part in. _ This isn’t right.  _ But Cillian’s lips were supple and smooth and his tongue seemed to know just what to do without the slightest hint from Alec. 

He’s had centuries of experiences, he reminded himself.  _ Just like your Magnus _ , whispered the voice in his head and a small dark part of Alec wondered if Cillian saw that as a challenge. If it was, then Alec was the prize for the victor. 

With nowhere to retreat to, he let his head thump back against the bookshelf behind him. There was a  _ thunk  _ and the fluttering of paper as Alec shoved books off the other end of the shelf and onto the stone floor. 

Tilting his mouth away did nothing to distance Cillian’s however, as the fey’s teeth caught a strained tendon in Alec’s neck between their grasp and worked along its length with tongue and teeth alike. He drew sounds out of Alec that had never left Magnus’s bedroom, yet here he was flustered and pinned up against a bookcase for any passing shadowhunter to see. 

_ God, I shouldn’t want this. I have a boyfriend. I shouldn’t be doing this. _

Alec’s hands came up with the intent of pushing him away, but instead Alec found himself clutching at the other man’s hips as he moved against the downworlder’s lithe form. Cillian widened his stance until their hips slotted together just right, one of his arms wrapping around Alec’s lower back to hold him close. Alec’s jeans had dried since his dip in the lake, but now they clung to his hips and thighs as a layer of sweat worked up on his skin along with his growing arousal. 

“See, I know what you really want, Alec.” Cillian groaned the words against the underside of Alec’s jaw. Alec was so dizzy with sensation that his name seemed to echo in his own ears. 

Expect, it didn’t really sound anything like Cillian’s voice at all. 

It sounded like—  _ Jace _ .

 

 

Alec bolted upright off the desk, throwing Jace’s hand off of his shoulder. He rocked back in his chair so hard that the legs tipped off the ground and slapped down a moment later on the hard stone floors with a startling  _ crack _ . 

Jace blinked at him in shock for a long second, but continued on despite Alec’s abrupt rise from sleep.

“Well, it’s about time. I’ve been trying to shake you awake for a solid minute.”

Alec rubbed the fatigue from his eyes and adjusted his jeans, uncomfortably aware of their tightness. He prayed to the angel that Jace wouldn’t notice.

“You’ve been out of the field for a month and already your sleeping like the dead? Honestly, Alec. I’m ashamed to call you my parabatai.”

“Sorry,” Alec replied lamely, too busy casting a hasty look around him. His coffee mug remained where he’d left it hours ago, intact with an inch of coffee still lurking in the bottom of the cup. That alone was enough to tell Alec that he’d been dreaming, but despite all logic to the contrary, Alec couldn’t shake the notion that it had felt like  _ more  _ than just a dirty dream. 

Whatever it was, it didn’t matter now. Alec took a closer look at Jace, dressed in his gear, weapons and all.

“Was there a new demon attack that I didn’t know about?”

Jace smiled. “No, same one as before.”

The body of the dead mundane had already been examined by the shadowhunters at the institute, there was no reason to head back to the scene of the attack this quickly… It took a moment before Alec caught up to Jace’s train of thought. “The hellhounds don’t travel in the mortal world during the day.”

Going out during the day would give them plenty of time to examine the scene of the attack and find the trail of the demon that did this. With no hellhounds chasing them through the city, it might actually be resolved quickly.

“Exactly.” Jace cast a cursory look at Alec’s rumpled and haggard appearance. 

“Go get changed into your gear. I’ll meet you outside in ten with coffee and an aspirin.”

Alec sighed gratefully and stood up from his chair. “Thank you.”

Jace’s eyes shot up to the ceiling, suddenly overcome with interest in the crown molding. “Yeah, don’t mention it. While don’t you get a head start. You _…_ _ahem…_ it looks like you have some things to take care of before we head out.” 

_ Oh _ .

Alec snatched up his notepad from the desk and clutched it in front of his person. 

He skirted around Jace and made a quick exit towards his room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone. Rest assured, this fic is still alive! I haven't had any time to dedicate to writing for the past few months, but I thought I'd try getting this small chapter posted while I had a little spare time. I probably won't have time to write the next chapter until this summer though if I'm being realistic with myself and you all. I am feeling more inspired now that season 3 has started up again though, so who knows maybe I will be able to make some time to write. Sorry for keeping you waiting so long for such a short chapter.

Together, Jace and Alec slid the metal grate away from the entrance to the sewers and glanced down into the nebulous darkness below. Underneath the stench of wet and rotten waste was the sharp and offensive odor of demon ichor.

Alec glanced at Jace and pulled a grimace. “I literally _just_ took a shower.”

“And we’ll be taking about four more today just to get this stench off us.” Jace gestured with his hand. “After you.”

Alec slipped down into the hole and landed with a splash that filled his boots with brown water. A second spray of water against the back of his legs told him Jace had landed behind him.

“By the angel!” Alec heard Jace cry as Alec fished his witchlight out of his pocket. “Demon ichor smells like roses in comparison to this.”

Alec tugged the collar of his t-shirt over his nose as he examined the walls of the sewers and wasn’t surprised in the least when the black and green splatter of ichor glowed back at him. Alec followed its phosphorescent trail with his eyes a ways down the tunnel until it vanished into the gloom.

“Looks like the demon traveled down here until it found a place it could surface. If we backtrack and follow the ichor trail it won’t be long until we find it’s source.”

Alec glanced behind him. He was shocked to see that Jace had dropped his hand from his face.

“How are you doing that?”

Jace blinked at him. “Doing what?”

“Breathing in this smell without dying.”

“Oh,” Jace smiled. “I activated my Breathing Under Duress rune.”

Alec slanted his eyes at him. “Seriously? You activated the breathing rune meant for burning buildings and toxic environments to walk through a _sewer_?”

“Honestly, Alec. Standing this close to the judgemental aura you’re giving off right now is making this a toxic environment. How about you activate your rune so we can hurry up and get out of this sewer.”

Alec rolled his eyes and followed Jace’s example. He couldn’t fault his parabatai for being right… it really did help with the smell, though he would never admit that to his face.

Together they sloshed on into the darkness, their witchlights held high over their heads with one hand and their seraph blades clutched in the other. The came across the source of the demon attack nine blocks away. A small horde of raums were feeding off of a pile of mundane bodies that they had managed to drag below ground level with their scaly white tentacles. Their pit black mouths created a disturbing soundtrack of alien hooting and clicking noises and the tear and crunch of flesh and bone was made worse as it mingled with the wet slap of sewage water against the tunnel walls.

Jace and Alec plunged into the thick of their ranks, using their seraph blades to hack and stab at any of the poisonous tentacles that threatened to envelope them. By the time they pulled themselves panting out through the next manhole and into the glaring sunlight they were wet up to the waist and stinking of decay. By then their breathing runes had faded to a barely visible glow and they propped themselves up against a concrete wall, taking the time to breathe in the not so fresh city air.

“Not so bad for your first hunt back in the field.” Jace gave Alec’s shoulder a friendly shove.

Alec stared at him with a breathless laugh, but whatever he had been planning to say slipped out of his mind as his eyes slid past Jace’s face to the figure standing across the street. Alec’s joy fizzled out in an instant and he pushed himself slowly to his feet.

“Hang on. I’ll be right back.”

He crossed the street and stopped in the weak shade of a small tree where Cillian was standing, looking like he had all the time in the world… which Alec guessed he did. Still, Alec had no way of knowing if some other business had brought him here or if he had somehow been following Alec this whole time on the Seelie Queen’s orders.

“What are you stalking me now?” asked Alec, unable to keep the defensive anger out of his voice.

“Me? Of course not. I’m just curious to see what this hunt of yours turns up. You smell absolutely horrendous, by the way. Has anyone told you that?”

“Sadly, just you, but now I’ll have such a fitting smell to associate with your presence.”

Cillian’s face slipped into a greasy smile. “Oh, come now. You didn’t seem to mind my presence last night.”

Alec rocked back a step, staring wide-eyed at him.

Cillian gave a mock gasp. “Oh, you didn’t know? Well this must come as a shock to you.”

“That’s not… I dreamed that.” It had to have only been a dirty dream. One born out of Alec’s unhealthy curiosity in a fey that exuded his dangerous nature like a sweet cologne.  

“Clarissa Fairchild was visited by an angel in her dreams and you shadowhunters readily accepted that as reality instead of fiction. Is it really so impossible to think that a fey could do the same?”

Cillian’s remark from his dream last night came back to Alec all of a sudden. _There are ways in that even you don’t know about._ If what Cillian was saying was real than Cillian had an all access pass into Alec’s head anytime Alec closed his eyes for the night. Despite the knowledge that both his person and the Institute were at risk, another more horrible revelation made itself known to Alec.

 _Alec had cheated on Magnus with another man_.

Alec’s mouth was suddenly drained of all moisture, his tongue laid heavy and parched. With the ability to form words escaping him, Alec could do nothing more than put distance between them, stumbling back across the street to the safety of his parabatai.

“I’ll be seeing you tonight, shadowhunter. Sweet dreams!” Cillian called as Alec grabbed Jace by the arm and pulled him along down the sidewalk.

“Alec, what was that about?”

“Nothing.”

“Well,” Jace pressed on when Alec didn’t elaborate. “What did he want?”

“To mess with my head.”

Jace sighed. “Let me guess… it worked, didn’t it?”

Alec grunted.

“Right, so where are we heading to now?”

“Magnus’s apartment. I have some serious fucking questions that need answering.”


End file.
